Woman who posed as schoolgirl scammed $18k

A serial conwoman who posed as a 13-year-old Sydney foster child received nearly $20,000 worth of services from the NSW government and charities before she was found out, a court has heard.

Samantha Azzopardi has previously duped authorities in Ireland and Canada into thinking she was a child sex abuse and trafficking victim, forcing them to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars investigating her claims.

The 28-year-old was arrested at the beginning of June after she repeated that same story while pretending to be a 13-year-old Sydney high school student named Harper Hart.

Azzopardi pleaded guilty to four fraud offences earlier this month after she was given an iPad, phone and Opal card from the not-for-profit Burdekin House, an ambulance transfer paid for by Good Shepard Australia, and medication from the NSW Department of Family and Community Services.

Hornsby Local Court on Wednesday heard the cost of her lies to Burdekin House totalled more than $10,200. That included case management services.

The department spent about $6700 on medication while Azzopardi's charges also cover $1440 worth of counselling from a state government victim services group.

She appeared via video link on Wednesday and kept her head down the entire time, quietly answering "yes" when magistrate Daniel Reiss asked if she understood the outcome of the hearing.

Related Articles

Azzopardi, who did not apply for bail, is due to be sentenced on July 19 when the court will consider a psychiatric assessment.

The 28-year-old faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail, according to court documents outlining police arguments for denying her initial bail.

The document cites her "extensive history of providing false documentation, obtaining passports in false names and assuming identities of other persons" in Queensland, Western Australia, Ireland and Canada.

Irish authorities were dumbfounded in 2013 when Azzopardi was found wandering the streets of Dublin and tricked them into thinking she was a trafficking victim from eastern Europe by drawing pictures apparently showing a woman being raped.

The following year she was charged with public mischief after walking into a clinic in Calgary, Canada, and repeating a similar story.